Part 10 of our series, ‘Understanding Homotoxicology.’
Most of this series has followed homotoxins through the body’s fluids and connective tissue — the arena where the earlier, more hopeful phases of disease are fought and won. But what happens when the contest moves inside the cell, into the machinery that actually makes energy?
This is the territory of the cellular phases, and of one of antihomotoxic medicine’s most distinctive tools: the catalysts. Where drainage remedies clear the ground and immune remedies rally the defence, catalyst preparations aim at something more fundamental — restarting a metabolism that has stalled.
‘The use of catalysts of the intermediary metabolism is a specialty of the anti-homotoxic therapy’ (Biotherapeutic Index, §3.2.3). This article explains what that means, and why Coenzyme compositum and Ubichinon compositum sit at the heart of it.
When the cell runs out of energy
In the six-phase model, everything to the right of the Biological Division — the impregnation, degeneration and dedifferentiation phases — shares a common feature: the homotoxins have crossed from the matrix into the cell itself, causing ‘cellular, structural alterations in cell organelles such as mitochondria or nuclei’ (Biotherapeutic Index, §2.2). (For a full tour of these stages, see our article on the six-phase table.)
These chronic states are ‘frequently due to blockades of physiological metabolical process chains (enzyme blockades)’ (Biotherapeutic Index, §2.3). Damage of this kind is often iatrogenic: the compendium notes that ‘many conventional pharmaceutical medications are based on the inhibition of enzymes as the active principle,’ while heavy metals and pesticides impede enzyme activity still further (§3.2.3).
The logic of catalyst therapy is therefore reparative rather than suppressive. By supplying the corresponding substances in potentised form, ‘the metabolic process is activated and… blocked cell or enzyme functions are reactivated’ (§3.2.3). Catalysts are indicated, above all, for exactly these cellular phases — the degeneration and dedifferentiation states ‘characterized by defective enzymatic control, blockages and/or defective cellular oxidation’ (§3.2.3.1).
The citric acid cycle: the ‘turntable of metabolism’
At the centre of cellular energy production sits the citric acid cycle. The compendium describes it in vivid terms.
‘The citric acid cycle is the “turntable of metabolism”… In conjunction with the respiratory chain the citric acid cycle is simultaneously the most significant source of energy for the metabolic process. It supplies the hydrogen for the biological oxidation and is thus closely linked to the energy metabolism of the cells.’ — Biotherapeutic Index, §3.2.3
Its elements are a sequence of organic acids: citric, cis-aconitic, oxalosuccinic, a-ketoglutaric, succinic, fumaric and malic acids, together with the salt oxalo-acetic sodium (Biotherapeutic Index, §3.2.3). These make up the Group A catalysts — ‘acids of the citric-acid cycle and their salts.’ Each transformation from one acid to the next is mediated by an enzyme, and when a noxa inhibits one of those enzymes, the concentrations of individual acids shift, ‘which can in turn trigger reactions or blockades with consecutive symptoms or disease manifestations in various tissues’ (§3.2.3).
Because the performance of any chain ‘is always determined by the weakest link,’ the compendium’s advice is to supply the acids ‘in the sequence in which they are generated within the cell,’ reaching ‘all possibly existing defects, obstructions, and instances of faulty regulation’ (§3.2.3.1). This is the rationale behind single-acid preparations such as Acidum Citricum-Injeel, whose picture takes in ‘premature ageing, arteriosclerosis, particularly cerebral sclerosis’ (Biotherapeutic Index, ‘Acidum citricum-Injeel’).
Why the milieu must be right
A catalyst, by definition, ‘accelerate[s] the equilibration of chemical reactions without disturbing the balance of the process’ itself, emerging unchanged and ready to act again (Biotherapeutic Index, §3.2.3). But a catalyst cannot work in a vacuum. As the compendium stresses, ‘catalysts can only act when the milieu is correct’ — the pH, the substrates and the ‘co-factors’ must all be in place (§3.2.3).
Those co-factors include vitamins, trace elements and certain metal ions; some enzymes are simply inert until activated by them. Magnesium and manganese are singled out, since ‘all kinase reactions require magnesium ions for the phosphate transfer,’ which is why citric-acid-cycle therapy is sensibly ‘combined with an injection of magnesium and manganese ions’ (§3.2.3.1).
Two practical cautions follow. First, catalysts are powerfully stimulating — a marked post-injection tiredness is common — so the compendium advises drinking generously, resting, and beginning gently in weakened patients: ‘the treatment is very slowly commenced and is not applied with massive doses’ (§3.2.3). Second, ‘a proper drainage is important’: in heavily burdened patients ‘the endogenic defence system should be mobilized before the therapy with catalysts’ (§3.2.3). Catalyst therapy, in other words, follows detoxification — it does not replace it.
Coenzyme compositum: reactivating the blocked enzyme
Coenzyme compositum gathers this Group A logic into a single preparation. It combines the vitamin co-factors of the B-group with vitamin C, the full set of citric-acid-cycle acids, coenzyme A, ATP and NAD (Nadidum), plus trace-element salts of manganese, magnesium and cerium (Biotherapeutic Index, ‘Coenzyme compositum’). Its stated indication is the ‘stimulation of blocked enzymatic systems in degenerative diseases as well as in defective enzymatic functions (cellular phases).’
The compendium offers an elegant image for how this works. The vitamins act ‘as if on a slide rail,’ guiding ‘the individual factors of the citric acid cycle… directly as inductors to the enzyme system’ (Biotherapeutic Index, ‘Coenzyme compositum’). The effect is deliberately gentle — ‘not too strong but mild reaction-provoking’ — so the preparation is suited ‘in practically all phases to the right of the biological division.’ Notably, it ‘can prevent or delay progressive vicariation and, therefore, deterioration to chronic illness,’ creating ‘the preconditions for the reactivation of blocked respiratory enzymes.’
Ubichinon compositum: quinones and the respiratory chain
Where Coenzyme compositum leans on the citric-acid-cycle acids, Ubichinon compositum draws on the Group B catalysts — the quinones and other ‘intermediary respiratory catalysts.’ These carbonyl compounds ‘play an important role in electron transfer processes such as cellular respiration and redox reactions,’ and, crucially, ‘the quinones possess the special ability to neutralize oxygen radicals. A quinone therapy improves the cellular respiration’ (Biotherapeutic Index, §3.2.3.2).
The preparation is built around Ubichinonum (coenzyme Q), an ‘active factor of the intermediary metabolism’ that ‘promotes detoxication’ and ‘strengthens the defensive mechanism,’ alongside anthraquinone, naphthoquinone, para-benzoquinone and hydroquinone (Biotherapeutic Index, ‘Ubichinon compositum’). To these it adds antineoplasmatic botanicals — Colchicum, Podophyllum, Conium, Hydrastis and Galium aparine — the same goosegrass that anchors the drainage remedy discussed in our article on the matrix. Its indication: ‘stimulation of the defensive mechanisms against toxins in order to reactivate the blocked enzymatic systems in… degenerative diseases (cellular phases).’
In practice the two preparations are partners. For the difficult, energy-depleted patient, ‘the two preparations Coenzyme compositum and Ubichinon compositum are administered together two to three times a week’ (Biotherapeutic Index, § detoxification therapy). The compendium summarises the class plainly: ‘the Compositum preparations containing catalysts, minerals, and trace elements are indicated for all chronic diseases connected with energy deficits such as chronic fatigue syndrome or for diseases caused by old age’ (§2.3).
Energy for the ageing heart: Cor compositum
The bio-energetic principle is not confined to the general catalyst remedies; it is woven into organ-directed formulas too. Cor compositum combines a Cor suis (heart) and Hepar suis (liver) extract with cardiac botanicals such as Crataegus and Cactus — and, tellingly, with four acids of the citric acid cycle: a-ketoglutaric, fumaric, malic and sarcolactic (Biotherapeutic Index, ‘Cor compositum’).
The result is a preparation for ‘coronary circulation disorders,… myocardial insufficiency… and angina pectoris’ in which the regulation of the myocardial circulation ‘is simultaneously supported by the catalysts of the citric acid cycle’ (Biotherapeutic Index, ‘Cor compositum’). It is a neat illustration of the whole approach: a failing, ageing organ treated not only with organ-specific remedies but by feeding energy back into its cells — the same reparative philosophy that guides Zeel in the ageing joint.
The takeaway
Catalyst therapy is antihomotoxic medicine at its most ambitious: an attempt to reach the stalled mitochondrion itself and coax the citric acid cycle back into motion. Because ‘every severe disease, which no longer possesses any self-healing tendencies, is coupled to dysfunction on the level of energy-supplying processes’ (Biotherapeutic Index, §2.3), restoring that energy is often the precondition for any deeper recovery.
Clear the ground first, support the defence, then — patiently, and in the right milieu — relight the cell.
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Source: All quotations and definitions are drawn from the Heel Biotherapeutic Index — Ordinatio Antihomotoxica et Materia Medica, 5th revised English edition (Biologische Heilmittel Heel GmbH, Baden-Baden, 2000): Section B, §2.2–2.3 (treatment across the Biological Division) and §3.2.3–3.2.3.2 (the catalysts, Groups A and B), together with the Materia Medica monographs for ‘Coenzyme compositum,’ ‘Ubichinon compositum,’ ‘Cor compositum’ and ‘Acidum citricum-Injeel.’